14-05-2012, 01:11 PM
Designer Babies and the Government
L5_FIB08s_dulai.ppt (Size: 2.03 MB / Downloads: 158)
What are designer babies?
To have a baby naturally we need two parents of opposite sex
Woman & Man
The woman's egg supplies one set of chromosomes and that of the man the other
Egg contains 23 chromosomes - one of each size
Sperm contains 23 chromosomes - one of each size
Once fertilized the embryo has all the genetic information it needs
and it begins to grow and develop into a baby
What are designer babies?
The way the gametes (egg and sperm) are generated results in a random sampling of the parents genes.
Suppose the father has blue eyes. He may carry a blue eye gene on one chromosome and a green eye gene on the other.
The sperm will have a random 50:50 chance of getting the blue gene, since there is room to fit just one of the two genes.
The same will apply for all the other 20,000 or so genes which are believed to make humans.
The exact same thing will take place in the generation of the mothers egg.
What are designer babies
So the child is a random union of the potential gene combinations of the father and that of the mother.
If neither parent carries the blue eye gene (i.e. each carries just the genes for brown eyes), then the baby cannot have blue eyes.
*unless a rare mutation event occurs which forms the blue gene